154 FIRST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



would rise above ground ; but, strange to say, such 

 plants have the power to draw the bulb down into 

 the ground, just as the roots of a bramble shoot that 

 has touched the ground have power to draw down 

 the shoot into the earth. 



17. Among the wood sorrels introduced from South 

 Africa into Australia, there is one with a pretty umbel 

 of drooping yellow flowers. This plant is spreading 

 fast by means of small bulbs that grow in large 

 numbers on the long thread-like roots. Weeds, as a 

 rule, are killed by being " turned in " in digging ; 

 but, since digging scatters these little bulbs, it serves 

 only to help the spread of this sorrel. A wood sorrel 

 taken from South Africa to Malta has spread around 

 the whole of the Mediterranean coast, not by seed 

 but by small bulbs. This is probably the same plant. 



18. How man learned to be a gardener. From 

 all this you can see that Nature has many ways of 

 multiplying plants besides scattering seed. You can 

 see, too, how man has learned to follow Nature in 

 this. He has watched and copied the plans of Nature. 

 One man, in removing the leaves that had fallen 

 below a begonia, chanced to notice that one of the 

 leaves had rooted itself. The news spread, and, in 

 a short time, all the gardeners in the world were 

 growing begonias by leaf-rooting. It is in this way 

 that man has learned to be a gardener. 



Questions and Exercises : — 



(1) Grow from cuttings the following ; gooseberry, geranium, 

 currant, rose, grape vine. 



N.B.— The cuttings should be of ripened wood planted after the autumn 

 rains. Press earth firmly about the ends in the ground. The process of 

 root-making may be watched if an ivy cutting be struck in water in a 

 glass vase. 



